The Steel Guitar Forum

I met with my friend last night who wanted to see how my learning was going, and he puled out his 6 string, tuned it to double drop d (DADGBD), and began to play a song that went like D (no 3rd) - Amin7 - F (but with a 2 and 6)...asked me to play along...

It then occurred to me that I am learning chords on PSG on the chart system, and not by memorizing what combinations of things make up a specific name of a chord....so, i'm learning how to navigate a I - IImin - VImin - IV - V - V7 - I pretty automatically, but I got a bit confused as his progression didn't easily fit this.


As you all know, except for paying the open neck on a 6 string, all the minors are derived directly from the major chords, so if you know where a D is, you know where a Dmin is....

Any thoughts as I move forward? Will I eventually just "know" where a Dmin is without thinking about it, whereas now I just think of a VImin progression from an open F?

Thanks!

It helps to learn the basic vocabulary of chords in every key and where they are on the neck in at least 3 places without thinking about it. It just takes a bunch of practice time. One thing I think of is if I know where a D maj chord is then I know where a B min chord is. Look at the basic triads in each key.

In C major:

C Major
D minor
E minor
F major
G major
A minor
B diminished




As you practice it can help to say the name of the chord you are playing out loud.

Hi, Steven, as Bob says, i would continue studying songs, progressions and where they lie on steel via the number system, and concurrently keeping in mind the letter name positions. Then when you confront an odder or hard-to-categorize progression, you can fall back on that knowledge base.
Without actually hearing the tonal center of the progression you mention, I might guess that I'd approach it as being in C major.
But regardless, I would probably find myself playing that one as out of one D position or another, omitting 3rds, then thinking of the Am positions as 6 of C, and F6/9 as 4 of C...
it gets easier.